School Violence Hotline

No school is immune from a violent situation. The state of Missouri maintains a School Violence Hotline to receive reports on a variety of school violence concerns, such as threats, bullying, assaults, property destruction, theft, sexual misconduct and weapons being brought to school. This hotline is a toll-free number 1-866-748-7047 and it takes calls from the general public, including concerned parents, students, teachers and school administrators.

This hotline covers the entire state of Missouri and is designed to address calls concerning school violence in any K-12 Missouri school, including Catholic schools. The hotline receives about 50 calls a month. Calls have been received from private schools since the hotline was established in October of 2001.

The school violence hotline is staffed Monday through Friday from 7a.m. to 6 p.m. During these hours of operation a dispatcher personally answers the calls and gathers the information concerning the school violence incident. The information is entered into a centralized database and phoned or faxed to local law enforcement within one hour. If the school violence is underway as the caller calls in, then the dispatcher puts the caller on hold and immediately calls local law enforcement.

Naturally, most school officials facing an unfolding school violence situation will first call local law enforcement - the local police or the sheriff. But the school violence hotline can be helpful in documenting the incident and preparing a detailed report to assist local law enforcement in their investigation. If a person calls after hours or on weekends, the caller's information is recorded and the dispatcher calls them back as soon as possible.

School Violence Hotline Web-site: For more information on the school violence hotline visit their web-site at www.schoolviolencehotline.com. At this web-site you will also find links to information on the Safe Schools Act as well as a link to the Missouri Center for Safe Schools, which provides curriculum on safe school issues, sample school emergency plans and more.